| Published in Help Net Security this week: Taking Ethical Action in Identity – 5 Steps Towards Better Biometrics Glance at your phone. Tap a screen. Secure access granted! This is the power of biometric identity at work. The convenience of unlocking your phone with a fingertip or your face is undeniable. But ethical issues abound in the biometrics field. The film Minority Report demonstrated one possible future, in terms of precise advertising targeting based on a face. But the Spielberg film also demonstrated some of the downsides of biometrics – the stunning lack of privacy and consumer protection. What’s fascinating is that many of these concerns were anticipated over a century ago. In 1890, Louis Brandeis advocated privacy protection when he...

I’m a startup guy. In 2012, I had the opportunity to do another startup. I was talking to venture capitalists and seed partners about funding my next new idea. I won’t go into too many details about the concept and the tech now, but it has been ironically satisfying to see the basic kernel of my idea become a Black Mirror episode. In other words, my idea was viable enough to be conceptualized as one future possible and showcased on a popular TV show, seven years after I first conceived of it, and put the pieces in place to build the tech. It’s weirdly satisfying, and also terrifying to see the Black Mirror version of my intended future. At that time, I also had in play an offer from a great team led by Peter Biddle at Intel, to come join them and deliver a new...